Sony Games posts third quarter half a billion dollar loss

Sony has announced that it made a third quarter operating LOSS of $443 MILLION. The main contribution to such a shocking figure was the high price paid for the launch of the PS3 as well as declining sales of the PS2 console.

quote:

Sony's gaming unit posted a third-quarter operating loss of $443 million, largely due to hefty costs for the launch of its PlayStation 3 video game console. Sales in it's cash cow, the PS2, are also starting to decline while the PS3 has yet to replace it, as Sony's main generator of money.

they will make about 6 billions later. :) late in this year, they will stop losing money on ps3, and after that, if they will make atleast/only 50$ from each console, that would be 50$*50 mln. ps3 = 2,5 billions $ of benefit. :)

Do You work for Sony? U act like some of that money is gong to come to you... Why dont you stop acting like a b!tch & post something that makes sense. Sony wont make money for at LEAST 2 years. & it will have to come from software sales from the online community.

So I suppose you can fork out 50 bucks for a blue ray dvd movie? If Blue Ray doesnt take off, this machine is worth negative dollars. Seriously, think about it. The PS3 isn't even compatible with HD-DVD! If HD-DVD becomes the industry standard, you can deduct at least $800 off of the PS3 price tag. Then you've paid $600 for a large piece of sh!t that's worth -$200. This my friends, is the PS3's future.

Sony are making a profit on every console sold to the EU...because of changes to the system and the price. Not much, but still not a loss. Anyway, multi-billion company losing money in one of their quarters...who cares? Nice to take risks.

ps. the day that people route for the mass billion earnings of a capitalist company over another just because they own their gaming console...is a step further towards us losing our sense of self.

a finance guru to know once the declining of the PS2 sales(without sales of the PS3 not going anywhere fast), SONY is going to loose a lot of money.

How soon will PS2 people pick up the PS3, seriously? OR jump into the competition with a better price package and great games?

See the people that have the PS2 are not all rich ,hardcore, fanboys.

With the price of the PS2 and the gaming library vs the PS3, it's price, and thelack of "Proven" titles(yes not all of the titles will be great) it will take a while for th ePS3 to be adopted.

This will hurt the Life-cycle of the PS3, and SONY will lag behind in a few years(as far as technology goes) when the new Xbox 720 is out(which will make the major difference (IMO).

PS2 might be the worst thing that happens to SONY, It might give the competition enough time to surpass the PS3 while it lags behind after a few years. Whether it is adopted by the PS2 community or not. A lot of market-share will be lost casue of that.

The Real peace of sh!t, is that console, which has 30-50% rate of failure, and then first letter of this console began from X. By the way, you have to pay to play online or get Map Pack, which developers would deliver for you for free.

You have to admit that this list is garbage... If you laid this list next to the 360's list, you would laugh yourself into a coma! You people act like the PS3 is going to cure cancer. It's about the games people. And we all know that as of right now, the 360 has the best games. DIRT >> Motorstorm. GOW >> Resistance. And every port to the PS3 looks better on the 360. You give me a Tiple A title on the PS3 that can own an Triple A title on the 360... Whats that??? Silence...... Just what I thought.

Yeah Sony is losing alot of cash to keep all of us PS3 owners happy, offers us the best technology with the superior Free online service at the best price. Sony is losing like $500 on each PS3 sold thats how much they care about their costumers.

Everyone already knows it's losing money. But everyone also already know the cost of production has improved already. Plus a launch costs heaps and thats over now.

And that's why Sony call the PS3 an investment. They're paying for it now to reap the benifits over the next 5 to 10 years. Thats their whole philosphy with this machine. Thats why they dont skimp on the extras and try to make us pay for them later. They do it all up front and I dont mind spending money if the value is there.

And anyone calling PS3 a piece of sh*t, you can go to hell. You obviously dont have or you would know what a quality machine it is, and I'm not about to take crap for lost profits from the fanboy of a company whose gaming division is still in the red from day one. Thats right, M$ might make 2 bits or whatever its is at the moment on every X360 sold, but their gaming division still hasn't made a profit over all since they started. Just remember that when you're slagging Sony for having down revenue at a time when everyones expecting it to be anyway.

gears of war over 4 million on its way to 5 X 5$ maybe $10 dollars= thats like between 20 and 50 million dollars is that a profit... yes lost planet just under 2 million X 5,10 =10 20 mill profits are being made with microsoft and america benefits with this in the year 2006 microsoft had just over 100 billion dollars and gave 54 billion to charities accross america. oh yea isn't microsoft getting paid for every computer sold running any form of windows which is like 95% of computers being sold and they probley make like 50 to 100$ on a computer in short microsoft is making money

And how can you accuse me how being a PS3 poster child and being in 360 denial? I've had a 360 for a year (3 actually) and PS3 for a couple of weeks. You see I'm an actual gamer, not a fanboy which mean I'm allowed to have/own/play all the consoles, not just the one my Mum bought me and now I've decided to swear allegence to.

Besides, I didn't say one bad thing about the Xbo in my post did I? You just pounced on me to have your spit for the day. All I said is M$ games have never made a profit and thats common knowledge. If they have very recently managed to scrape through into the black then I'll retract that, but I haven't heard anything like that. As far as I know they are still way behind what they have spent. Remember I'm talking about right back to XB1 as well, not just 360.

Now, go enjoy your gaming, for those that still take enjoyment out of gaming. Seems lately that less and less people do.

Looks like Sony's fiscal year ends March 31st, so I'd expect this 3rd quarter loss would have been racked up between Oct. 1 & Dec. 31st 2006, which has me wondering how much more cash the PS3 has eaten since then.

That's hardly chump change, although Sony's one of the few companies capable of weathering that kind of a loss for one quarter. If this continues, though, they'll have a problem on their hand. As it is, this will affect their stock price and rating, if only temporarily.

What I'm curious about at this point is if the PS3's sudden decline in Europe is just a normal post-launch downturn, or a sign of something more serious.

Do you remember the first xbox. HDD, ethernet, 4 ports for controllers. With the PS2 you were milked. 8 MB mem card for $30, WTF. Now Sony is the good guy. They both want to make money. They are not our friends. Sony will make money back on their over priced TV's. M$ lost like 8 billion and no one cared. Looks like they learned from the past.

I thought we were gamers not $$$$ analyst. Let the accountants worry about this crap. I remember when ppl just got the consoles. Now we are caught up Sony's and M$'s every day doings. Who gives a "F" if Sony goes belly up. I only care about the factory workers not the big wigs. Those guys and their grandkids are set for life If I get and continue to get good games for as long as I game, I don't care who makes the console, or if they make money.

Anyone read another Inquirer? Yeah...when I look at the word Inquirer, I see "Made-Up crap to make people laugh".

I'm just saying.

This is probably the only truthful thing they've put out. While Sony has lost a LOT of money on THIS...they've gain a LOT more in other areas. The Inquirer was only looking at SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT!!! They weren't looking at Sony as a company. Sony has lost a LOT of money, but they've also gained a LOT of money...off of tv's, mp3 players, phones, camcorders, digital cameras, etc...

Yeah, I agree...the mart will say something lame. If you would like to save the 360 from pure HYPE FAILURE...please find the mart's home and shoot at the windows. If women and children are present, do not do so...because Mart is our target...no one else...except maybe Hillary Clinton...

the problem with the Mart and people like him, is that they refuse to think rationally. they don't realize that this is a website and not everyone thinks like them. they think because the 360 has sold more units at this time, its automatic they'll win this console war.

nevermind the fact the over 3mil ps3's have been sold. nevermind the fact that the 360 isn't all well known or highly thought of as the ps3. or that the best MS can hope for is a bigger share of the consumers, not the lead. in their world, MS is heaven sent and everything they do is in their best intrest. like making them pay for everything.

sure the ps3 has some things that might not be needed RIGHT NOW, but at least when you buy one, you don't have to keep upgrading. and when you do buy an add-on your not taxed out the ass. $100 for a 20gig hdd and $180 for a 120gig. pay for everything, extra maps, little additions to games, everything. pay for wackass faceplates. pay for something to keep your controller charged. pay for wireless connection. oh you want HDMI? buy the NEW "ELITE" 360. i know you thought you already had an elite system from the beginning but no. that was the premium. its not "ELITE".

one things for sure my ps3 was elite from the beginning. no add-ins needed. and with the Wii selling like it is, its possible the 360 could be in third place when all is said and done.

wanna know the reason the 360's lead wont last long? everyone knows about this:

guys dont forget that in the business world 'last years launch' is still considered' the most current quarter's earnings. i'll admit that i didnt look at the whole figures but if sony is including the ps3 sales losing money per console in these figures as expected than losing that much really means its a loss for this quarter waiting on potential earnings for furture quarters. think business, not fanboy BS. 500mil in the whole for one quarter aint bad, i thought it would be far worse than that this is also coming from a wii60 guy who understands business as a whole

...Sony had opted to put a standard DVD drive in their PS3 this might be a different story. PS3 would have come out about the same time as the 360 and probably would have outsold the 360 3 to 1. Oh but wait, then we'd have to have games that span multiple DVDs - oh for shame. Mind you, maybe an option to install most of the game content on that 60Gig HDD rather than filling it up with downloaded movie trailers and game demos could have helped out with that.

I'll bet if consumers had been given the choice most would have opted for a cheaper PS3 SKU that didn't feature Blu-Ray. But typical Sony saw another opportunity to introduce yet another unproven format in their quest for digital supremacy.

By the way, what if Sony had in 3 or 4 years repackaged the PS3 as a slimline and then introduced a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive. Not only will the HD war have been won but it would also give existing owners a real reason to upgrade!

First nice to see people are posting on this interesting news. As I submitted it, but not WRITTEN it, I can't understand why Sony fanboys attack me personally on it.

@ LeonSKennedy4Live or something like that with a name change...

That's no name change dude. That's because your old account was shot down to one bubble. You are opening new ones/multiple accounts, just for getting some new bubbles to spend. But you're down already again.

Dude, are you threatening me there and call for all freaking fony fanboys to hunt me down and shoot at my windows? I guess indeed Sony/Playstation freaks are criminals after all... Dude, you're the one who's sick in the head here. Discussion on a site like this and hunting someone down, how can you ever think of it?

You know it's a sign of weakness when you don't discuss anymore, but want to take your own justice to reality, right? That's what dictators do dude. If you don't like the news I post, go to the site that wrote it. If you don't like my posts, fight it with facts. If you're scared that other people won't buy a PS3 because of my posts and switch to a 360 I bet you're just sh!tting your pants and want to defend your beloved Paystation.

Right. I'm done with you I guess. And even Sony fanboys should agree with me on this one. Whatever you think of the rest that I am posting about the consoles most of the times.

Back to Sony and their losses. And MS and their losses. Let's break it down:

Sony lost 2 Billion dollar up till 2007 they said themselve on the PS3. That's only starting costs etc etc. Not even the costs accounted for loosing 250 dollar on every PS3 sold.

Sony is loosing about a half billion dollar every quarter after that. It'll be 2 Billion dollar this year again with ease.

That's 4 Billion dollar already. That's the amount of money spend by MS for 5 years XBOX 1. This is blown by Sony in two years. MS had to enter the market as a total new console and choose so to invest those 4 Billion dollar and become nr. 2 with the XBOX 1.

Sony IS already in the market for 12 years and has been marketleader with PS1 and PS2. They don't have to fight to get the marketshare. The only thing they needed to do is hold their marketshare.

Something went wrong in that story there. They delayed. So that MS/360 could take advantage and hit the market first. Like the PS2 did in 2000 and the XBOX 1 came late 2001. That's the real reason the PS2 stayed marketleader. It was out first.

That's the positive spiral: most units out, more profit to earn with games... That's the 360 now.

PS3 looses 3 Billion dollar every 10 million units sold. Imagine that. An attach rate of 3.4 games per PS3.

Sony has a problem and they know it. No good businessmodel. No earnings on online service.

nah, I'm pretty sure they knew what they were getting into when they launched their system, all features included: cell, blu-ray... They knew it was new architecture and it was going to be hard to develop for, and yes they knew how much money was going to be lost. I don't think this spells death for Sony, at least not that I can tell. Now, I don't have numbers, but I will say that Sony surely is all-profit now from the PS2 and that's why they are pushing that so hard with new software coming from everywhere from 1st Party, movie games, everything is being developed for the PS2 and Sony is making money from it. Of course it won't keep Sony afloat, but it can only help them. They are also building up their brand with incoming software and PS franchises like God Of War and Ratchet and Clank, that will only be seen on PS. But it all comes down to price, right? Maybe? Brand loyalty is really strong and not just because it has the words Sony and PlayStation, but it has all of the games that many people have been playing for a very long time. Hypothetically, if the next XBOX cost more than the next PS, would you buy a PS because it was cheaper when it has most of the games that you enjoyed on the original? Just putting it out there. It's not easy launching a $600 dollar console with little software, but they did it and they are as successful as they should be.

Overrated, you're the one who needs to grow up. Scottie- you bash the Mart for being an ultra 360 fanboy but look at your frikkin self man. "how much you guys think MS is losing fixing and shipping broken 360s. i'd hate to see those figures. yikes!!!!!!" and... "in their world, MS is heaven sent and everything they do is in their best intrest. like making them pay for everything." and lots of other countless digs... So, what is the moral of the story? Love Sony and hate Microsoft if you want Scottie but don't tear people apart for being fanboys when you are just another typical fanboy yourself. I'm sure the Mart is well aware of his 360 fanboyishness anyway.

i like both and prefer sony. i just get tired of the xbots relentless attacks on something they admit they never play and wouldn't even consider buying. to me, thats just silly. and as much money as i've spent on both systems, i'm gonna call someone on their bullsh!t everytime.

everything i said was based on facts and personal experience. i've had a 360 from the beginning and i remember how rough it was for 360 owners then. so for them to turn around and bash ps3 owners every second of the day is stupid and annoying .

launch time is rough for every system. even a company like nintendo, though they've sold many units, is having trouble with supply and games. stop acting like everything that MS does is perfect and i'll be easy. you people wanna talk that bs, i'm ready. i got plenty of people that could vouch for me, bring it.

And even if that was correct. They are still upside down from the original Xbox project. So the statement still stands:

"Microsofts Xbox gaming department has "YET" to turn a profit".

If they drop out of the console race right now they still wont break even. Incase you dont understand let me break it down real easy...Xbox360 is basically still paying off the original Xbox's debt. Hence the term "Yet to turn a profit"...PS3 dropping the ball...wow where do you some you live.... The $600 dollar console with weak asss ports and short list of exclusives is outselling the cheaper console with a well stacked library. Dont believe do an overlay of Xbox360 sales from launch till now then do one of PS3 sales from launch till now. You can only sit back and have nightmares of how the $100 price drop,Home, Return of the Rumbling Sixaxis, and the Exclusives coming this year are going to make you feel about your purchase. If you were smart you would do what most of the 360 camp on this site is already doing. Shut up and play your console. Enjoy it. Enjoy your preached about Triple A titles. They obviously arent triple A enough or you wouldnt be constantly trolling around here posting irrelavant crap.

I miss my personal favorite rant of yours... how did it go:

"Someone please tell me why I would I buy a PS3"

Bring it on now.... I would love to answer.

BTW to all the people that gave this FUD approval. GOOD JOB. Thats why this site is going to shyt. Keep approving bogus articles.... (3rd quarter?????) SMFH !!!

Dude from launch till now on the PS3 and the 360 last year from launch with the same amount of months/days they sold..... They sold about the same in the first four months.

The 360 has been sold out (no more units available) well into april 2006. They would have sold many more if they were available.

Plus: the PS has a much wider fanbase. 100 million PS2 owners out there, 24 million xbox 1 users. So if the PS3 and 360 sold about the same in four months, that's weak for the PS3. With four times as much fans owning the last gen PS, it should have sold many, many more then the 360. Which it clearly didn't.

The coming months/years are the most interesting. The fanboys sell a console during launch. After that the salesnumbers are interesting. PS3 in february on 130k in North America while the 360 sells 240k in the same month. That's what's interesting. The 360 in Japan having 25% of the sales of the PS3 still. That's interesting. The PS3 in Japan last figures from weeksales on 16k, while the Wii is doing 4 times as good almost every month.

You're right. We are enjoying AAA titles. While you sit back and Sony says you have to wait again. For home, for the good games, for rumble...

Bottom line is that the 360 is making money and the ps3 isn't. The ps3 wont make a profit for atleast 2 years. The first xbox lost about 4 billion in 5 years...well the ps3 is also around 4 billion in just 2 years.

"You can only sit back and have nightmares of how the $100 price drop,Home, Return of the Rumbling Sixaxis, and the Exclusives coming this year"

You keep telling yourself about that $100 price drop...or maybe they'll just downgrade the ps3 again like they did for the Europeans. And I'm sure you'll have much use for "Home" cuz nerds like you will live in this virtual world and maybe be able to get a virtual girlfriend. :) The 6axix for the ps3 is a joke...no game utilizes it correctly, just a shake here and there. Just proves that they added it in the end to compensate for the loss of rumble. And the ps3 cant compete in 2007 with the exclusives from the 360: Forza 2, Bioshock, Halo 3, Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Shadowrun, Splinter Cell 5, etc... 2007 will be the 360s year.

"BTW to all the people that gave this FUD approval. GOOD JOB. Thats why this site is going to shyt."

It's people like you that give this site a bad name since all you do is reply with such hostility. But don't worry, I expect that from another typical sony dud. :)

"I miss my personal favorite rant of yours... how did it go:

"Someone please tell me why I would I buy a PS3"]

Wow I haven't said that in like 6 months and you remember that? Either I must of made a good point and it killed you that you couldn't reply with something intelligent....or their is just a lil to much boredom in your life!

According to Sony's website they haven't even put out a 4th qtr release for 06' yet.

I'm betting this is a 3rd qtr FORECAST (Sony's predicting) what it believes to do in 07'. They did a forecast for 06 around this timeframe as well.

As for MS loses. Well MS initially lost around $126 bucks per 360 on launch. Now, they make around $70 bucks on every $399 360 they sell.

Nintendo at launch is making approx. $40+- bucks of each console it sells of the Wii. That number should double sometime this yr once Nintendo adds more suppliers to it's current one at FoxConn.

Sony loses on the PS3 at launch: According to iSuppli's analysis, Sony is taking a loss of roughly $307 on the lower-end model and $241 on the higher end model. Even as Sony cuts costs, it's recently approved Immersion license($150.3 million settlement, $22.5 million for licence) will no doubt figure into this equation later on this year, if dual shock is to become a reality for PS3 gamers.

On March 27, 2007, it was reported on the BBC News website that the PlayStation 3 had broken United Kingdom sales records. It had sold more than 165,000 units in its first two days on the shelves, compared to 71,000 for the Xbox 360, and 105,000 for the Wii. It is the second-fastest selling home console in Britain with a software attachment rate of 1.65; however, some British retailers claim that the PS3 was subjected to as many as 20,000 pre-order cancellations same thing occured in the U.S. Other retailers cited a "huge demand" for the console. It has been reported that UK PS3 console sales for the following week were down 82%, with a 60% drop in sales of the two most popular titles, Motorstorm and Resistance. All this translates into GAME OVER sony take your crappy console grab your little scooter and take your fat tail home!

How come i didn't get the clairvoyant add-on when i bought my 360 like some of you seem to have ? TheFART ..ASSASSHOLE36o and LateknighT did you all consult you tarot cards and crystal balls to know Sony/PS3 is gonna fail ? FFS don't talk so stupid . You are talking about a company that has assets in the 10`s if not 100`s of billions , a company that produces and sells more home electronics i.e TV`s ,hifi`s ,dvd players ,bd players,camcorders (not to mention Sony Records ,Sony Pictures, the cell phone market,laptop and P.C) etc etc than it ever will playstations . A company thats been around since before the 60`s and you think these guys don't know what they are doing ? or that you know better ? give it a rest please , you make it sound like they got all their eggs in one basket which i`m sorry to inform you but Sony have their fingers in more pies than you three have combine brain cells so with that statement you know the number is higher than 3 .